F/SF

Great collection of thought provoking sci-fi short stories, with a variety of interesting ideas to explore. Asimov gives some commentary after each entry, explaining the context of the central idea and giving some prompts about scientific avenues of exploration for the reader to follow. Some favourites were Surface Tension, which details the tribulations of a microscopic water-dwelling civilisation's "space" program, and Omnilingual, the only story with a female protagonist, involving her struggle to to find a way to decrypt the ancient Martian language from the writings the dead civilisation left behind.

My quibbles are predictable. The book gives a good survey of science fiction through the ages, starting in 1931, but as it was published in 1971 we don't get any up-to-date content. So we have an outdated focus on Mars as being a life-bearing planet and some strange incongruities: space-farers who use telephones with a "hook" and cameras with "film". Secondly, as mentioned, a complete lack of diversity. Aliens, it seems, were less improbable than female protagonists to the collection of male authors here.

I'd actually love to see the concept re-done for our modern era, incorporating a greater variety of authors and showing how our sci-fi concepts have evolved into the new millenium. ( )

12 povídek.
Výbor z dnes již kultovní sbírky povídek "Where Do We Go from Here?" sestavené nejznámějším americkým SF autorem 20. století – Isaacem Asimovem.

As seems standard for me with any book of short stories, I loved some of the stories, liked some of the stories, and was indifferent toward one or two of them. The 4-star rating is for the collection as a whole. It's certainly a must-read for any fan of classic science fiction.

My favorite stories in this collection are:
"And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert A. Heinlein
"A Subway Named Mobius" by A.J. Deutsch
"Surface Tension" by James Blish
"The Big Bounce" by Walter S. Tevis ( )

Asimov chose each story for "its scientific content as well as its merit as a story..." Includes stories by Lester del Rey, Robert A.Heinlein, Hal Clement, James Blish, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven and others. ( )